- The document discusses the key conventions of music magazines, including an interesting masthead, cover images of bands/artists, and feature articles. - It describes the contents of a sample music magazine created by the author, targeting those interested in club, dubstep, and dance music aged 15-25. - The magazine aims to stand out by focusing on an underserved genre and using a dark color scheme, while still including typical elements like interviews and reviews.

1. HayleyJohnson / Evaluation MediaStudies/ MusicMagazine http://hayleyjohnsonmedia.blogspot.com/

3. A music magazine that you would see on the shelf today would have key conventions that most magazines have. On the front cover they would have a bright interesting masthead with an interesting name that relates to what is in the magazine. The masthead is a brand identity that distinguishes one magazine from another and enables the target audience to recognize it immediately the brand identity encourages reader’s loyalty to buy the magazine again. Magazines often have one main image of a band or artist with a main headline banner that features an article that would interest the intended audience, with a strap line that tells the audience more about the feature. Magazines often use the word exclusive on the main feature banner across the page this tells the intended audience that this is only available to this certain magazine. Music magazines front covers often have text containing information that will be found in the magazine, like articles featured or information. This is often place around the image or slightly over it but not concealing the main image on the front. The front page would be over all interesting and would have to be unique to catch the intended audience in some way therefore making them want to buy it. A typical contents page would include a letter from the editor to make the magazine seem friendly and informal, a contents page would also feature the month the magazine goes into the shops, information on exactly what’s in the magazine so the intended audience can navigate their way through the magazine. Also in the contents page there is the small print of who edited the magazine and the people who created it. Inside a music magazine it would be filled with interviews with bands and singers, competitions, information on albums, reviews and also advertisements. Advertising is essential to magazines to make a profit, along with profits from the cover price. Double page spreads would be used for large exclusive interviews, images, reviews, news articles and anything that has had more background information, research and depth. Music magazines have to compete with each other in order to attract their target audience.

5. In my magazine I have included most the typical conventions of a magazine, for example the interesting masthead that would create a new brand identity for my magazine. I have tried to make my magazine look as much like a magazine you would see on the shelf today. The images I have used, I have tried to make them look as professional as possible by editing the contrast and brightness on publisher and editing anything when I needed too. The difference with my magazine to any others is the genre of magazine there isn’t many popular club music and dance festival music magazines; I have tried to fill this gap in the market with my music magazine. Another ingredient that I haven't included that is a typical convention in a music magazine is a letter from the editor, I did this because though audience feedback and also asking friends I found out that most people don’t even bother reading it so I felt this wasn’t needed in my magazine. Also I have pushed the boundaries with my magazine by keeping the front cover black and dark; this is not a usual thing with most magazines as they are kept bright, white and interesting. Also I have not included any competition advertisement on the front of the cover as I feel that the interviews alone and image would interest my intended audience, I think that advertising ‘free’ things and competitions is to cliché for my sort of magazine and would actually put the audience off buying it if they saw it on the front cover.

7. In my music magazine I have represented the social group of teenage to mid twenties, male and females who are interested in club, dubstep and dance music. I have represented them by making the magazine seem different to other magazine using a young adult colour scheme that is still interesting and fresh but not boring or tacky. Also my front cover image is of a young adult therefore this would interest the intended age range I intend to represent. I have used slightly more text than images as the audience would be of a more educated age group and would prefer reading information than looking at pictures.

9. Mixmag would be my main rival magazine, as it is known for its dance style music genre. Development Hell publishes Mixmag. Development hell recently brought DontStayIn.Com, a company that is featured a lot in my magazine. I think the institution that would publish my magazine is sidewinder events as my magazine includes a lot of their events and would increase my magazines popularity. Development Hell may also publish my magazine as it would be good for Mixmag to have competition.

11. The images I have used are a mixture of professional looking close up shots of my main model and band. Also shots of more people at festivals and clubs. For my image on the front cover I have edited it on publisher making it darker, creating a shadow on the face and blending it into the dark background. On my contents I have used a range of images that would be included in my magazine, I have edited them together to make it one large image.For my double page spread I used one large picture of who I writing my interview on and a picture of a band he was in. I edited the background out the group image to make it fit in better with the white background to make it seem more professional

12. My media product is aimed at a large age group, ages from 15 to 25 because of the range of aspects within the magazine. The magazine is aimed at males and females, but more at the male genre as the type of music that the magazine is designed around is more of a male genre. The general profile of a person who would buy my magazine would be a 21 year old male who has a general interest in drum and bass music. Their profession would be a student with hobbies such as creating music, DJing, clubbing and going to music festivals. My audience feedback was mainly off teenagers therefore I based my magazine on this age group.

13. I attracted my target audience by having a interesting front cover with a brightly coloured masthead, this gives the magazine a brand identity. The magazine also has a website this gives the audience more information and access to competitions this is also including a modern convention. The cover lines on my front cover are features that would be interesting to the target audience. For example bands featured and exclusive interviews. The image on the front cover would attract the target audience as it is a good looking male model who is well known in the music world. The colour pallet I have used is mainly black, grey, blue and white, this would attract more male people to my magazine. The green and pink cover lines connect with the masthead. The use of black is different to most conventional magazines as it is such dark colour. The way the magazine talks to the audience is in a not too chatty way as this is very ‘pop’ magazine like. I wanted to keep it informational, grown up, fresh and classy. My audience feedback showed that they were interested in dance music and the picture on the front would interest them the most and also the use of bright colours on the masthead.

14. To create my magazine I mainly used publisher to put it together and edit my photos. I also used gimp, photo editing software to create my masthead. I also gimp to edit other photos, however I did not use these due to my colour scheme. I also improved my digital camera skills when taking my photos and setting up my photo shoot. I used white walls, dark walls and lighting to create shadow. I also changed the brightness of the flash on different photos. For my group photo I had my models pose in a funny positions that would be interesting for my target audience. Also by creating my magazine I had to blog it on a blogging site, by doing this I learnt how to use a blogging site and how to make an online poll.

16. Looking back at my preliminary task I have learnt how to make my magazine look more professional by taking better photos and planning my photo shoot. I have also learnt that time keeping and planning is important to keep up to date and on top of creating my media products. Also I have learnt that editing my photos gives my magazine a professional touch to it. Making sure that I took in my audience feedback when creating my magazine I think I have managed to create a magazine that would appeal to my target audience